Thanks. I'm doing three pads right now. It's actually 4 pads, but I did the first one a year ago and just did the second one on Saturday. I'm going to do the next one this Saturday and the last one the following weekend.
The first one that I did last year was 10x12x6. It took almost 2 pallets of 60 pound Readi Mix from Lowes. The one I did Saturday is the same size, but I think it's thicker because I used up all of both pallets and another 6 sacks that I had in my garage. I'm digging the footing for the third pad this week and I'm going to pay more attention to not digging too deep!!!
Those three pads are for my 3 car garage. It's a low area just before you drive into the garage and a muddy mess with just gravel there. I created a low area in the middle of each pad that slope lower on each pad to carry the water away to the side of the garage, where there is a shallow ditch to take it all the way around my house.
The last pad will be 9x12x4 inches to create my new front porch.
I'm doing this by myself. It's about the max that I'm comfortable doing on my own. At 60, it wears me out, but it's doable.
I ordered six pallets and 20 sticks of 20 foot 3/8's rebar from Lowes, that they delivered and positioned for me. Having everything next to where it's going to be poured is huge. I put 3 sacks in the mixer, dump it, put 3 more in the mixer, spread what I just dumped, then dump the mixer and put 3 sacks back in again and spread what I just dumped. I do this until I have enough concrete built up at the farthest side away from the mixer that I can screed it. I'm using a 14 foot 2x6 for this. I screed about a foot at a time, trowel finish what I screed and them pile up more concrete to screed another foot. Once I get it all screed off, I use my edger and then my bull float to smooth it all out.
This takes forever, but the longer I spend doing it, the better the finish. I'll never be as good as a pro, but it's not so bad that most people will give it a second look.
